Hancock, MN 56244 Frost Dates
56244, near Hancock, MN: the frost window
Typically, the last spring freeze lands around 05/04, roughly 249 days out. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/01, roughly 150 days after the last spring frost.
Zone 4b (-25 to -20°F average annual minimum) comes from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map; the frost dates above are the 1991-2020 normal at the nearest reporting NOAA station for Hancock, not a forecast for this year.
Stretching the season past the first frost
Hancock's growing season runs out in roughly 5 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
Why 05/04 isn't a guarantee
05/04 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/21 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/17 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
Hancock against the rest of the dataset
About 150 days separate Hancock's last and first frost, putting it 35,348 of 40,283 ZIP codes nationally. Within MN, it ranks 528 of 943.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 56244: local microclimates, on what one yard in Hancock can differ from the 56244 normal, and zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 4b and Hancock's frost date answer different questions.